The Guns of John Moses Browning: The Remarkable Story of the Inventor Whose Firearms Changed the World

Grandpa told me that our family married in to the Browning family in Ogden. My great grandfather's uncle was first cousins with John Moses so this book has extra appeal to me. My son is the one who recommended it and he was spot on. My first pistol was a 1911A1 and I love it. One of my regrets from 24 years on the Army is that I never got to fire the M2 .50 Cal also designed by John Moses. Well written and enjoyable. Thanks Nathan. I hope you enjoyed our town.

Fascinating historical read about a genius gun designer not known outside the small circle of gun aficionados and historiansBrowning designed and licensed civilian and military gun designs that have lasted over 100 years. His designs changed the outcome of wars including the Spanish-American War, WWI and II, and Korean War. Some designs are still in production today.Browning’s genius was thinking in three dimensions, and envisioning interworking of parts in harsh environments of extreme heat, dirt and high pressure. He had no formal education. And of course, Browning had no CAD/CAM computers or computer-controlled machine shop. Diagrams were in his head, and then carefully translated into precision-machined gun parts.The book tells the story of the life of John Moses Browning, his family including younger brother Matthew important to his success, Mormon marriage, relationships with European royalty and armament manufacturers, and shrewd deal-making. Eventually, he earned a global reputation as the #1 gun designer in the world—lever action rifles, repeating rifles, semiautomatic pistols, pump and semiautomatic and over-under shotguns, and fully automatic heavy-duty and medium-duty machine guns. Browning’s designs were prolific, and breathtakingly reliable and simple. He worked tirelessly every day of his life, and no surprise family life suffered though he had 10 children.The story explains Browning’s critical importance to the high-tech industry of his era—namely the five high-tech gun manufacturers of Colt, Winchester, Remington, Savage, and Fabrique Nationale de Herstal of Belgium (FN).Before there was Bill Gates’ showing how to license an operating system to hundreds of PC manufactures, Browning instinctively understood the business side. Early on, Browning licensed his designs rather than manufacture his designs himself. He experimented with single fee license, per-firearm license with guaranteed minimums (royalties), license exclusivity, and lower license fees during time of war in the interest of national security. His brother specialized in manufacturing prototypes to secure a patent and eventual license to a manufacturer. Browning understood the power of collaboration over going it alone.He died a wealthy man, though I suspect he could have been even wealthier with financial advice we now take for granted.My lone disappointment with Guns of John Moses Browning was the omission of the business side of Browning. How Browning was paid and how much is barely covered, and what happened to his accumulated wealth is sketchy in detail.

Tells the story of someone who has influenced millions of lives that very few people know of.

Thank you John Browning for helping us win two world wars. Since reading I have purchased an M1911A1 and next plan to purchase a Winchester 94 Carbine.

I found the book in a “Military History Magazine Book Review” a few months ago and thought I should know about John Moses Browning due to the BAR automatic rifle. Little did I realize he was the inventor of my 1911, (45 pistol) and basically a plethora of weapons, civilian and military over the last 140 years of human existence. However, I also became aware of why my eighty-five year-old mother-in-law from Alabama viewed Mormon’s as Muslims while reading this book.The book is very well composed with excellent print size on quality paper. It has thirteen chapters, a table of contents, reference section, glossary, and an excellent index which assists in the following of the story. The edification of the book has a few typos and a few hick-ups but, otherwise read well and has some very interesting vignettes the average historian may not be aware. The work poses stories to excite and keep a reader's interests which hypnotically allows for continuous reading. Especially, the story of the archeological site of Alvin York’s encounter in WW I.This is also a must read for the WW II enthusiast. Gorenstein’s last half of the book is filled with stories of WW II combat that while Browning designs were used in the events. He invented the 30 and 50 caliber machine guns which probably turned the course of the war. Where the latter is still the main offensive weapon of today’s western militaries.The last few chapters are not fill as ascribed by some, but represent the impact that Browning’s super-weapons inventions had on allies winning the war! As far as chapter 12 is concerned , I flew with the 8th Air Force and very much appreciate the sacrifice the American Airmen made for their country as all Americans should be. Without the 50 Caliber machine gun air-superiority over Europe would have not been possible to allow D-Day!Although I feel the author could have incorporated more figures and drawings in the text to explained the structure of the various devices presented, the several figures and photos in the text are helpful. I highly recommend this book as a gift to any firearm enthusiastic who may not be aware of the background behind their weapons. They need to understand how these fantastic creations came about.

Tout a bien été, livraison ultra rapide !

Really liked the book and thought it was well-written for an American book (I only had to look up one word!). Very interesting to read about one of the most important firearms designers and also the article about Audie Murphy at the end. Well worth a read.

Leider nur in englisch zu haben

A very good, interesting book, well written and detailed. Concentrates on the man rather than the technicalities of his guns which was, to me at least, a bit of a disappointment.One thing grated when I read the book, however, the description of the poor reliability performance of the Vickers gun against the Browning in the competition held by the US army. This didn't gel with the normal descriptions of the Vickers such as "August 1916, during which the British 100th Company of the Machine Gun Corps fired their ten Vickers guns to deliver sustained fire for twelve hours. Using 100 barrels, they fired a million rounds without breakdowns. 'It was this absolute foolproof reliability which endeared the Vickers to every British soldier who ever fired one. It never broke down; it just kept on firing and came back for more.'" Turns out that not mentioned in this book the Vickers used for the comparison were Colt made 30-06 variants, which had problems which were never successfully resolved until to the 1920s".